The present invention is generally directed to systems and methods for managing data centers for public, private, and hybrid cloud applications. More specifically, the present invention is directed to providing software as a service (SaaS) to manage the provisioning, application deployment, and/or life cycle management of such data centers.
In general, cloud computing is the delivery or access of computing resources as a service, rather than as a product. Cloud computing allows a user to access resources and data via a network infrastructure linking data centers of the cloud, thereby allowing users to take advantage of shared resources, software, and information. Each data center may comprise a plurality of servers that provide various computing resources. Cloud computing is increasingly recognized as a cost effective means of delivering information technology services through a virtual platform rather than hosting and operating the resources locally.
In data centers or information systems that offer a plurality of application systems, resources are often efficiently created, designed, and allocated using a provisioning process. Provisioning of a server is generally a process that changes the configuration of a pool, or shared, server, to the configuration of a specific application server. Provisioning functions may be sold and provided as a software product.
However, the costs associated with provisioning a system are often quite expensive and out of reach of small and medium sized businesses. Often, smaller companies may offer provisioning systems, but the lower cost and smaller entity providing the service may result in system drawbacks, such as lacking full integration with data center tools. To the extent the smaller companies can perform such services, large amounts of manpower is needed to perform tedious manual processes to accomplish end-to-end provisioning and life cycle management. Such tedious actions typically drain manpower and financial resources.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods that provide a means for provisioning, application deployment, and life cycle management of data centers in an easy, user-intuitive, and cost effective manner. It is further desirable to provide such systems and methods to small and medium sized businesses using public, private, or hybrid clouds.